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About Town | 8-18-13

Humpy’s Big Island Alehouse is holding a Bloody Mary contest at noon today. The event is free to enter and free to watch.

The alehouse is located on Alii Drive in Kailua-Kona.

For more information, call 324-2337 or visit humpys.com.

Kupuna meeting for lunch Wednesday

Kona Kupuna Singles Club meets at 10:45 a.m. Wednesday to carpool to the Queens’ MarketPlace food court for lunch.

Call 326-1288 for more information or reservations.

Seniors visiting Imiloa on Thursday

The Kailua-Kona Seniors will visit Imiloa Astronomy Center on Thursday.

There will be no regular Wednesday meeting this week. The next regular meeting is slated at 10 a.m. Aug. 28 at Hale Halawai.

For more information, call Bev at 325-6993 or Claire at 756-5352.

Grant applications due Sept. 15

Hawaii Women’s Legal Foundation is accepting applications from organizations and projects that improve the legal status and welfare of women and children in Hawaii. The foundation considers grant applications biannually. The deadline for the applications is Sept. 15.

Examples of recent grants include funding for the West Hawaii Mediation Center to help fund the “Working it out” conflict resolution program for children. Other grants, for projects not on Hawaii Island, include money to buy book bags and books for former inmates who participated in a prison literacy project and recently reunited with their children, funding for an Oahu domestic abuse shelter to buy safe outdoor playground equipment, money to help a domestic violence hotline acquire new office space and funding for pretrial and litigation costs for domestic abuse victims.

Grant applications are available by email to Dianne Brookins at dbrookins@ahfi.com or Zale Okazaki at zale.okazaki@hawadvocate.com, online at hwlf.org/grants/. For further information, call Okazaki at 537-6119 or Brookins at 524-1800.

Health Connector awards grants

The Hawaii Health Connector is partnering with 34 community organizations, including several on Hawaii Island, for participation in its Hii Ola Marketplace Assister program.

Open enrollment for the Connector begins in October, and grants have been awarded to support marketplace assisters, known as Kokua, whom will serve an integral role in reaching and educating individuals, families and small business owners.

The Connector’s marketplace assister grants were awarded to community partners through a competitive grant application process. These grants will support outreach and education efforts as to the benefits of the marketplace, facilitate enrollment in health insurance plans and provide job opportunities for residents. Marketplace assisters will help consumers located on every island and provide impartial information about plan options. Additional grant opportunities will be available in the future.

“People understand that these organizations have close connections to their communities,” said Coral Andrews, Hawaii Health Connector’s executive director. “By partnering with these organizations, we can now provide Hawaii residents in areas of need with access to quality health insurance coverage. For many of us, health care can be confusing and difficult to understand, and these partners will help to simplify the process and strengthen their communities.”

In addition to the marketplace assister program, the Connector is also building a customer support center, which will receive inquiries from multiple communication channels, including telephone, mail, web chat and fax. The customer support center will operate from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., seven days a week, during the open enrollment period.

These services being offered by the Connector will help consumers use the Connector’s online health insurance marketplace, designed in partnership with the state Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs and Department of Human Services. Open enrollment in quality health plans on the Connector will begin this fall.